Cash, Drugs, and Guns: Why Your Safes Aren't Safe
Reverse engineers electronic gun safes and commercial digital vaults, demonstrating effortless physical and electromagnetic bypasses across leading brands.
Summary
Trust in Electronic and Biometric Safes
Consumers rely on electronic gun safes and smart security vaults to securely store firearms, narcotics, cash, and sensitive documents, trusting vendor claims of impenetrable digital security.
Reverse Engineering Digital Lock Controllers
Mark Omo and James Rowley analyze microcontrollers, solenoids, and electronic keypads across leading commercial safe manufacturers, uncovering severe design and firmware vulnerabilities.
Physical, EMP, and Logic Bypasses
Researchers demonstrate multiple zero-trace bypasses, including manipulating unshielded solenoid wiring, executing electromagnetic pulse (EMP) resets, and exploiting unauthenticated debug pins on exterior keypads.
Standards and Engineering for Physical Security
Fixing flawed electronic safe locks requires manufacturers to adopt hardened mechanical backup locks, shielded solenoid enclosures, and cryptographically verified keypad buses.
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